Page image treatment

ABSTRACT

An average size of a plurality of page images is determined, and a size of a first one of the page images is determined. The size of the first page image is compared to the average size. If the size of the first page image is larger than the average size by a first predetermined amount and larger than the average size by less than a second predetermined amount, then the first page image is rotated for printing. If the size of the first page image is larger than the average size by at least the second predetermined amount, then the first page images divided into multiple pages for printing.

BACKGROUND

Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology wherein digital or hardcopies of a document such as a book or magazine are printed in smallquantities or even one at a time, typically when an order for thedocument has been received. POD is useful, for example, for specialtydocuments, test marketing documents, and when producing copies of olderworks that are out of print. Digital printing technologies facilitatethe POD process, since it generally is not economical to print singlecopies with prior printing technologies such as letterpress and offsetprinting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating aspects of an example of a Printon Demand system having a content preparation system that, among otherthings, identifies and handles oversized document pages.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating aspects of an example of thecontent preparation system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method forhandling oversized document images.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of further aspects of amethod for handling oversized document images.

FIGS. 5A-5D illustrate examples of oversized document handling.

FIGS. 6A-6C illustrate further examples of oversized document handling.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown byway of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may bepracticed. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilizedand structural or logical changes may be made without departing from thescope of the present invention. The following detailed description,therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of thepresent invention is defined by the appended claims. It is to beunderstood that features of the various embodiments described herein maybe combined with each other, unless specifically noted otherwise.

Printed books or magazines often have some oversized pages—pages thatare larger than the rest of the document's pages. Sometimes these pagesare folded to fit the width and height of the containing documents, andaccordingly, are commonly referred to as foldouts. When foldout documentpages are stored as digital images for POD services, printing thecontaining documents can be problematic.

Examples of systems and methods disclosed herein include determining anaverage size of a plurality of page images and determining a size of afirst one of the page images. The size of the first page image iscompared to the average size, and based on the comparison, certain pageimages are identified as oversized, or foldout pages and these pageimages are modified for printing.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a print on demand (POD) system 10. Insome implementations, the POD system is implemented as a web servicethat allows book publishers/content owners offer books and otherdocuments on line. A consumer 12 can search document collections, readbooks online, order printed or digital copies, etc. The system 10includes a content preparation system 100 that takes scanned images ofbook or other document pages and prepares them for the POD system 10.For example, the pages of an out of print book 14 are scanned and thescanned page images are provided to the preparation system 100, whichcleans up artifacts that exist due to age or that are introduced duringthe scanning process. The digital content 16 can then be packaged intovarious formats for both print and online distribution. If the consumer12 desires a hard copy of the book 14, the digital content 16 isprovided to a printer 18 to produce a printed copy 20.

Printed books or magazines such as the out of print book 14 often haveoversized pages that are larger than the rest of the document pages.These oversized pages are folded in to fit the width and height of thecontaining book and are therefore commonly referred to as “foldoutpages” or “foldouts.” Printing documents that have foldouts can beproblematic with POD systems. Sometimes foldout pages are removed fromthe book, but this results in a loss of information. Alternatively,foldout pages are reduced in size such that they fit the size of thebook page. Simply reducing the image size, however, can result in a verysmall and illegible image. The content preparation system 100 includes apage input module 102, a page measurement module 104, and a page imageoutput module 106 that formats such page images for printing.

FIG. 2 conceptually illustrates aspects of an implementation of adocument preparation system 100 that, among other things, processesoversized, or foldout pages. The content preparation system 100 includesa page input module 102, an page measurement module 104, a page imageoutput module 106 and a memory 108. The system 100 may be implemented bya computer system including one or more discrete modules (or dataprocessing components) that are not limited to any particular hardware,firmware, or software configuration. In the example illustrated in FIG.2, the system 100 includes an appropriately programmed processor thatmay be implemented by any suitable computing or data processingenvironment, including in digital electronic circuitry (e.g., anapplication-specific integrated circuit, such as a digital signalprocessor (DSP)) or in computer hardware, firmware, device driver, orsoftware. In some embodiments, the functionalities of the modules arecombined into a single data processing component and in otherimplementations the respective functionalities of each of one or more ofthe modules are performed by a respective set of multiple dataprocessing components.

Software code embodying disclosed methods may be stored in the memory108 or another non-transitory tangible storage medium that is accessibleby the content preparation system 100. Non-transient storage mediasuitable for tangibly embodying program instructions and image datainclude all forms of computer-readable memory, including, for example,RAM, semiconductor memory devices, such as EPROM, EEPROM, and flashmemory devices, magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removablehard disks, magneto-optical disks, DVD-ROM/RAM, and CD-ROM/RAM.

Digital page images 110 are analyzed by the system 100. As noted above,the page images 110 are scanned images of a book or other document pagesin some implementations. The images 110 are received by the page imageinput module 102 and may be stored in the memory 108, or in anothermemory device accessible by the page preparation system 100, via anetwork such as the internet, for example. Generally, the scanned images110 are analyzed by the page measurement module 104 and over-sized pagessuch as foldouts are identified. These pages are then processed by thesystem 100 and output by the page image output module 106 in a modifiedform as processed images 112, and then can be included in a documentdelivered to a consumer in a digital or printed form. In someembodiments, the processed images 112 are stored in the memory 108 orother memory for printing.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a method 200. Software code for themethod 200 may be stored in the memory 108 and implemented by the system100, for handling foldouts or other over-sized document pages. In theimplementation illustrated in FIG. 2, the page images 110 are pages ofthe out of print book 14. In block 210 of FIG. 3, the system 100determines the average size of the page images 110, and in block 212 thesize of a first one of the page images is determined. In certainimplementations, the page size is determined based on Dots per Inch(DPI) and the number of pixels for the page. Thus, the page width wouldbe the pixel width divided by DPI, and the page height would be thepixel height divided by DPI. For example, a 1,800×2,700 pixel page witha DPI of 300 is a 6 inch by 9 inch page. In some instances, page images110 may have been captured at different resolutions during the scanningprocess. For example, some of the pages may be captured at 300 DPI andothers at 600 DPI. In cases such as these, a normalization process isused prior to processing the document for POD. In still furtherimplementations, metadata associated with the page images identifiespage sizes and/or foldout pages. Thus, examining the metadata allows thesystem to directly identify foldout pages.

In some implementations, the page width is used as the page sizemeasurement. In alternative implementations, other measurements such asthe page height are used, or the height and width can be used todetermine the page area. Sometimes foldout pages extend out bothhorizontally and vertically such that the page is larger than theaverage page size on both the height and width dimensions. Using a pagearea measurement in such situations can be advantageous.

In block 214, the system 100 compares the size of the first page imageto the average size. In decision block 216, if the size of the firstpage image is not larger than the average size by at least a firstpredetermined amount, the first page image is determined to not be afold out as shown in block 218. If the page is only slightly larger thanthe average page size, it can simply be reduced in size for printing.

If the size of the first page image is larger than the average size byat least the first predetermined amount and larger than the average sizeby less than a second predetermined amount as determined in decisionblock 220, then the first page is identified as a foldout page and it isrotated for printing in block 222. If the size of the first page imageis larger than the average size by at least the second predeterminedamount in block 220, then the first page image is divided into multiplepages for printing in block 224.

As noted above, in block 222 of FIG. 3, the page image is rotated forprinting. FIG. 4 illustrates further aspects of block 222 in accordancewith some implementations. Since first page image has been identified asa foldout page, it has a portion that extends from the containingdocument. The direction the image is rotated in block 222 is determineddepends on whether the foldout portion of the page extends from the leftor right side of the document. If it is determined in decision block 240that the foldout image extends from the right side of the page, theimage is rotated 90°. If the image does not extend out from the rightside—it extends from the left—then the image is rotated 270°.

FIGS. 5A-5D illustrate an example foldout page image, IMAGE-1 301. Therectangle shown in broken line represents the average page size 300. Inthe example illustrated in FIGS. 5A-5D, the page width is used as thepage size measurement, and the average page size 300 has a width w_(a).IMAGE-1 301 has a width w_(i). As shown in FIG. 5A, the width of IMAGE-1301 is more than 1.5 times the width of the average page 300, but lessthan 2 times the width. In other words, 2w_(a)>w_(i)>1.5w_(a). Thus, inaccordance with block 222 of FIG. 3, IMAGE-1 301 is rotated asillustrated in FIG. 5B. Further, in the illustrated example IMAGE-1 301is reduced in size such that it fits within the average page size 300.However, by rotating the image, the amount of reduction to fit IMAGE-1301 within the average page size 300 is far less than would be requiredhad the image not been rotated.

Further, as illustrated in FIG. 5A, the IMAGE-1 301 extends from theright side of the page 300, so that it opens to the left of the page300. Thus, in accordance with the example illustrated in FIG. 4, theimage is rotated 90° as illustrated in FIG. 5B. FIG. 5C illustrates anexample where IMAGE-1 301 extends from the left side so that it opens tothe right of the page 300, and therefore the image is rotated 270° asillustrated in FIG. 5D. In some implementations, a blank page is addedbefore and/or after the rotated foldout page as necessary to maintainthe page layout of the original document. Adding the blank page(s) keepsthe paging arrangement (left and right page sides) the same as in theoriginal document, preserving the page ordering for the remainder of thedocument.

FIGS. 6A-6C illustrate another example foldout page image, IMAGE-2 302.As in FIGS. 5A-5D, the rectangle shown in broken line represents theaverage page size 300, and the page width is used as the page sizemeasurement. In FIG. 5A, the width w_(i) of IMAGE-2 302 is more than 2times the width w_(a) of the average page 300. In other words,w_(i)>2w_(a). Thus, in accordance with block 224 of FIG. 3, IMAGE-2 302is divided into multiple images.

As illustrated in FIGS. 6B and 6C, the IMAGE-2 302 is divided into twoparts IMAGE-2A and IMAGE-2B 302A,302B. In some implementations, theimages 302A,302B are resized to fit across the entire width of two pages300 as shown in FIG. 6B. In other implementations, gutter space 310 isadded along the inside portions of the pages 300 as illustrated in FIG.6C. This prevents portions of IMAGE-2 302 from being hidden inside thegutter. Adding the gutter spaces 310 is effective, for example, fordocuments with many pages. The gutter spaces typically are not used fordocuments with few pages, and/or when a staple binding is used. In someimplementations, additional blank pages are added before and after thesheets 300 when the image is split into multiple parts as in FIGS. 6Band 6C. Adding the blank pages keeps the paging arrangement (left andright page sides) the same as in the original document, preserving thepage ordering for the remainder of the document.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the artthat a variety of alternate and/or equivalent implementations may besubstituted for the specific embodiments shown and described withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. This application isintended to cover any adaptations or variations of the specificembodiments discussed herein. Therefore, it is intended that thisinvention be limited only by the claims and the equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a page image input moduleconfigured to receive a plurality of page images; a page measurementmodule configured to: determine an average size of the plurality of pageimages; determine a size of a first one of the page images; compare thesize of the first page image to the average size; and a page imageoutput module configured to: if the size of the first page image islarger than the average size by a first predetermined amount and largerthan the average size by less than a second predetermined amount, thenrotate and output the first page image for printing; if the size of thefirst page image is larger than the average size by at least the secondpredetermined amount, then divide the first page image into multiplepage images and output the multiple page images for printing.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, further comprising: a printer configured to print thefirst page image.
 3. The system of claim 1, further comprising: a memorystoring the plurality of page images.
 4. The system of claim 1, whereinthe page image output module is further configured to: resize the firstpage image.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first predeterminedamount is 1.5 times the average size.
 6. The system of claim 1, whereinthe second predetermined amount is 2 times the average size.
 7. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the page image output module is furtherconfigured to: insert at least one blank page image.
 8. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the page image output module is further configured to:divide the first page image into first and second page images; andinclude a gutter space on the first and second page images.
 9. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein: the plurality of page images are pages of adocument; the first page image includes a portion that extends from afirst or a second side of the document; and wherein rotating the firstpage image for printing includes determining a rotation direction basedon whether the portion of the first page extends from a first or asecond side of the document.
 10. A method, comprising: determining anaverage size of a plurality of page images; determining a size of afirst one of the page images; comparing the size of the first page imageto the average size; if the size of the first page image is larger thanthe average size by a first predetermined amount and larger than theaverage size by less than a second predetermined amount, then rotatingthe first page image for printing; if the size of the first page imageis larger than the average size by at least the second predeterminedamount, then dividing the first page image into multiple pages forprinting; and printing the first page image.
 11. The method of claim 10,further comprising: resizing the first page image.
 12. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the first predetermined amount is 1.5 times theaverage size.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the secondpredetermined amount is 2 times the average size.
 14. The method ofclaim 10, further comprising: inserting at least one blank page image.15. The method of claim 10, further comprising: dividing the first pageimage into first and second page images; and including a gutter space onthe first and second page images.
 16. The method of claim 10, wherein:the plurality of page images are pages of a document; the first pageimage includes a portion that extends from a first or a second side ofthe document; and wherein rotating the first page image for printingincludes determining a rotation direction based on whether the portionof the first page extends from a first or a second side of the document.17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storinginstructions for controlling a processor to perform a method,comprising: determining an average size of a plurality of page images;determining a size of a first one of the page images; comparing the sizeof the first page image to the average size; if the size of the firstpage image is larger than the average size by a first predeterminedamount and larger than the average size by less than a secondpredetermined amount, then rotating the first page image for printing;if the size of the first page image is larger than the average size byat least the second predetermined amount, then dividing the first pageimage into multiple pages for printing.
 18. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising printing thefirst page image.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 17, wherein the first predetermined amount is 1.5 timesthe average size.
 20. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 17, wherein the second predetermined amount is 2 timesthe average size.